Weekend Update: 3/08-3/10

If you were hiding under a rock all weekend and woke up this Monday very confused, have no fear, Joyce is here and she will tell you what you missed during your weekend news cleanse. Well at least what she considers to be important.

The biggest news of the weekend came on Saturday afternoon when Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez gave the masses what they wanted and finally got engaged. The two have been dating for just over two years with their first date taking place on February 1, 2017. Fans of the couple have been anticipating this engagement since the relationship was announced, many of them betting it would happen before the end of their first year together. I was one of them and was very surprised it actually took this long. Their relationship was everywhere and they were so lovey dovey for forever and with her history in relationships, it would not have been a stretch to assume she would she would marry someone after a short time. It is no secret that Jlo has been engaged four times and married three times before, the last one to Marc Anthony resulting in her two beautiful twins. A-Rod has also been married before and has two daughters, and it seems like the families have blended perfectly, constantly going on vacation together and spending holidays together. Anyways, I’m happy for them and I really hope the fifth time’s the charm for Jlo and that she has finally found her true soulmate in A-Rod.

Fans of the Serial podcast have been anxiously waiting for the Maryland Court of Appeals’ decision regarding a new trial for Adnan Syed, and it was announced over the weekend that they denied his request and Syed will continue his life sentence. This one really broke my heat, as I was a big fan of the podcast and am very comfortable admitting that there were a lot of holes in the prosecution’s story that the defense failed to point out. Adnan has been serving a life sentence since 2000 after the body of his ex girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, was found and he turned into the primary, and sole, suspect. Adnan has maintained his innocence since the conviction and the podcast dove deep into whether or not he received the best defense possible. In 2016 the Baltimore Circuit Court ruled to overturn Syed’s conviction and grant him a new trial. The case then went to the Maryland Court of Appeals where that decision was challenged and voted against in a 4-3 decision.

One of the biggest mistakes in my opinion was the failure on his lawyers part to call to stand a potential alibi witness who claims to have seen Syed in the school library that day during the time the murder was supposed to take place. What lawyer wouldn’t call her to the stand? The next piece of evidence that was debunked in the podcast are the cell phone records that actually helped convict him. In the podcast it was determined that it would have been impossible for Adnan to get to the different locations the calls were supposedly coming from in the time between the calls due to the distance between locations. Also it wouldn’t be possible to determine where he was when he received incoming calls and cell phone records are not enough to prove the timeline of events star witness Jay Wilds’ brought to law enforcement. Lastly, in the case of Jay Wilds, he was in no way a reliable source, mostly due to the fact that his story changed and remained inconsistent throughout the entire case. There are also some points against Syed, like his inability to remember anything about the day of the murder and the act that he had motive as he was a very possessive boyfriend. Despite all these inconsistencies the court ruled that while not calling the alibi witness was a mistake they do not believe his case was prejudiced by that mistake.

The Jussie Smollett saga continued to make headlines this weekend when a grand jury chose to indict him on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false police report. The 16 counts have come from each lie he told about the event. For those who haven’t been following this story, Smollett is accused of staging an attack against him in which he said homophobic slurs were said, bleach was thrown at his face and a noose was tied around his neck. The crime was considered a hate crime and the public was on his side until it turned out he allegedly planned the whole thing himself. I mean I think he should face consequences because in a time where racial tensions are at a high, all he did was incite more hate and create an uproar, but I do think 16 counts is a bit of an overkill. If convicted on all 16 counts, Smollett faces either probation or up to three years in prison for each count. I mean that’s a bit much in my opinion. He has already been fired from his hit show Empire and will likely never work in Hollywood again. He has very few supporters left and has been deemed completely untrustworthy. I don’t know, I feel like they are just trying to use him to make a point and I’m not a fan of that.